king of stories
January is a fine month for catching up with Anton Chekhov. The Russian who is, alongside Keats, literature's most distinguished doctor wrote somewhere between 500 and 800 short stories between visits to the suffering (not to mention his plays). At this time of year my spirits are usually in a post-holiday slump. Snowbound, without the distractions of good weather or much work, I find myself ideally attuned to the Chekhovian wavelength of detachment, humility before the puzzles of eternity and consciousness, and quiet pity for the fate of all the living. If you haven't read him, or read him under the right circumstances, make sure you set aside an hour sometime this week or next, preferably around midnight with a cup of cocoa and the rest of the house asleep. You don't even need to visit the library or bookstore -- his stories are public domain and all over the Internet (here at http://chekhov2.tripod.com/ for instance).
The good thing about 800 stories is that you can read dozens every year without repeating, and then, in old age, start over again immediately on the corpus. The not-as-good thing is finding an entry point. Personally, I don't care much for his early comic pieces, which I don't think have held up well and show little of the delicate feel for character and momentum of events that shines in his maturer writing. Here's a top-ten list from my reading so far, all of which are linked in their unimprovable Constance Garnett translations at the above-cited site.
1. Lights
2. The Lady With a Dog
3. Rothschild's Fiddle
4. The New Villa
5. The Steppe
6. Ward No. 6
7. Gooseberries
8. The Darling
9. Peasants
10. The Party
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4 comments
plus, if you don't want to read them yourself, you can listen to them being read (for free)on Itunes. Just go to the store and type in chekhov. I got "Rothschild's Fiddle" all set up to listen to tonight.
Just a follow up... I didn't make it very far before going to sleep but my wife thought Rothschild's Fiddle was great (other then the snoring)
Constance Garnett's translation may be available on line, but, believe me, they can be improved upon. Garnett is way too prim.
If you like Lady with the Little Dog, you should see and hear Dominic West (of The Wire) reading it for Carte Noir coffee at http://www.cartenoire.co.uk/the-lady-with-the-little-dog. It's an ad campaign they have where the celebrities are reading saucy stories. Really enjoyable.